Full report (pdf - 326KB) - National Audit Office

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26 Part Two Reducing bureaucracy in further education in England The cost of providers’ administration of funding, qualification and assurance systems across the sector 2.15 The various other types of further education providers also administer similar types of funding, qualification and assurance systems as colleges, although this is likely to be to a lesser extent due to the smaller range of provision offered. The costs we have assessed for general further education colleges can be used to illustrate the potential total burden for the sector. We have confirmed the reasonableness of these results with sector representatives. 2.16 If our estimate for colleges is expanded across the full range of providers the full cost would be greater. The different types of further education provider mean that there is a greater degree of estimation in this figure than in our estimate in paragraph 2.13 for further education colleges. Nonetheless, by expanding our results across all providers, assuming they experience a similar proportion of costs, we estimate the total cost of administering funding, qualification and assurance systems for providers to be in the region of £300 million a year (within a range of £160–400 million). Even if other providers only experienced half of the costs of colleges, the amount would be in the region of £250 million a year. 2.17 The Department and the Agency consider that our estimates of providers’ costs are insufficiently rigorous. We agree that more work would provide a more accurate estimate but in our view a broad estimate of costs is better than none at all, not least to help assess the value of seeking to reduce them. We welcome that the Agency has now begun a more detailed assessment of these costs.
Reducing bureaucracy in further education in England Part Three 27 Part Three Developing a solution High-level framework for reducing bureaucracy Understanding the problem Developing a solution Implementing it effectively Measuring the cost and benefit that control and assurance creates Understanding provider needs Identify the end state Clear programme of actions to achieve it Governance and leadership Clear communications to the sector 3.1 This part of the <strong>report</strong> focuses on developing the Department’s and Agency’s vision of a simpler system and what they think such a system would look like. The Department should have a clear migration plan including: costs of the revised system, an evaluation structure and drawing on the evidence base developed. In particular we assessed: • developing a vision and initiatives for simplifying systems in further education; • the level of administration to be reduced and the scope to release cash for frontline services; and • clarity of the plans. A vision and initiatives for simplifying further education systems 3.2 A key organisational change occurred on 31 March 2010 when the then Government broke up the Learning and Skills Council. Responsibility for public funding of pre-19-yearold education was moved to the Department for Education’s new Young People’s Learning Agency and, for 19-plus further education, to the Department and Agency.
Page 1 and 2: REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDIT
Page 3 and 4: Department for Business, Innovation
Page 5 and 6: Contents Key facts 4 Summary 5 Part
Page 7 and 8: Reducing bureaucracy in further edu
Page 27: Reducing bureaucracy in further edu
Page 39 and 40: Report by the Comptroller and Audit
Page 41: Published by TSO (The Stationery Of

Full report (pdf - 326KB) - National Audit Office

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